By Lila Purusottama dasa
Dear Maharaja and prabhus
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
It is a pleasure to inform you that ISKCON devotees have shifted to the gifted land of 5 Acres situated in a prime location of Kanpur City on 26 April 2007. The land has been donated by Bina Bhatnagar through a trust. On 2nd May, a welcome ceremony was held for Their Lodships Sri Sri Radha Madhava. Around 250 ladies and gentlemen from the Kanpur City attended the festival. Many respectable Government officials, life members and some prominent citizens were among the guests. The program started with kirtan led by HG Probodhananda Saraswati prabhu from Krishna Balarama temple, Vrindavana. A fire sacrifice was then performed in which the guests participated very enthusiastically. HG Devakinandan Das, Co-Zonal secretary for Kanpur temple delivered an impressive lecture on the vision of temple project and inspired the audience to take up Krishna consciousness and to cooperate with this project effort. Students of IIT, Kanpur, inspite of having examination, put their heart and soul to prepare delicious feast for Sri Sri Radha Madhava. All the guests were purchased by the tasty prasadam. All the local news papers and TV channels reported about the festival very favourably. The media propagonda was so much that many guests turned up next-day thinking that ISKCON has already built a temple in their city.
At the moment devotees are staying in a make-shift shed. We still do not have proper facility for water and electricity. An architect has already been approached to make a proper plan and estimate of the project. This five acre land will house a beautiful Sri Sri Radha Madhava Mandir, an International Gurukula afiiliated to CBSE, a sastric study center, and an international guest house. The land is very near to Ganga-barrage. We have a plan to acquire more land along the Banks of Ganga near Vaidehi Mata Mandir to start a farm community that would self-sustain four prime activities: cow protection, organic farming, education and culture. Soon we are going to constitute Sri Sri Radha Madhava temple project committee consisting of many prominent citizens of Kanpur City. IIT Kanpur students are actively participating in various aspects of this project.
Srila Prabhupada often referred Kanpur as Machester of India and wanted a temple to be here. We are in the process of making a brochure by collecting Srila Prabhupada’s various quotes on Kanpur Project.
Through this mail we invite you to visit this new ISKCON project from time to time for giving us your valuable guidance and association.
Your humble servant Lila Purusottama dasa
— Dr. Laxmidhar Behera Associate Professor Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
208 016, UP, INDIA